Hmmm...interesting idea that Joachim of Flora originated the idea of "stages of history," such that any iteration of the concept (Marx, Hitler, or whomever else) could be traced to him. I'm not sure that's true, but I'd have to look into it a bit.
Seems to me that there's Gnosticism and Gnosticism...it's hardly a "unified religion." There are all varieties of gnostic religions. I also don't there there are "ultimate high ups" of gnostics that "secretly govern Gnostics" even though unwitting practitioners don't know it. That's a weird understanding and take on Gnosticism. There are a lot of Christians that veer into a kind of Gnosticism today. So there are "kinds of Gnosticism" that aren't equivalent to first-century Gnosticism as he describes it (something that certainly existed).
Gnosticism, very basically, is the belief in "salvation by secret knowledge" (which can only be revealed, not pursued intellectually), and is usually anti-material. Again, there were many, many version of this throughout history. Not all Gnostics know they're Gnostics, sure, but not all Gnostics believe in "the Demiurge." Frankly, that's a little ridiculous.
Some of his characteristics of Gnosticism are...a little off. "Predicting the future" is not a unique characteristic of Gnosticism.
I think he's guilty of a lot of category error—because "some Gnostics believe this particular thing," then "all Gnostics believe this particular thing," and worse, "if you believe this particular thing, you are a Gnostic."
I don't disagree that Hitler "created a version of a religion."
I don't know that "having faith in something" (i.e., an ideology) qualifies that thing as a religion. I have faith in my wife. She's not a religion.
Biggest problem with the first video—he plays fast and loose with categories. Gnostic ideas permeate culture and were probably manifested in Hitler's ideas. That doesn't mean that Nazis worshiped the Demiurge.
Sorry...I wrote all that before watching the response video, which makes fabulous points.
